Potential names arise to fill Cavs vacant GM spot
February 6, 2014Chris Grant resisted front office push to trade for Thunder’s James Harden
February 6, 2014
From the first day Chris Grant took his office as the general manager of the Cavaliers, the buzz word on everybody’s lips was “assets.” As Investopedia describes it, “assets are bought to increase the value of a firm or benefit the firm’s operations.” At the time Grant took over general manager duties for the Cavaliers, the franchise had just lost the biggest asset they’d ever had (or anyone had ever had) in LeBron James. And since there was no other asset attainable on the market of the caliber of LeBron, Chris Grant went into asset collection mode. The notion was the more assets you gather, the more flexibility you have as a franchise.
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Whether it was gaining future draft picks from Miami in the year 2045 or acquiring the expiring contract of Baron Davis, Grant’s belief was every asset, no matter how big or small, could help with the rebuilding of a contender. Grant turned Baron Davis into the first pick in the draft, which of course was used on the now two-time All-Star Kyrie Irving. Regardless of your views on Grant, he deserves credit for the Baron Davis trade and he deserves credit for selecting Irving when the choice was not so clear cut.
Grant’s asset collecting amounted to a record of just 80 wins and 199 losses. Since the losing never subsided, Grant is now gone, but the moves he made has left his successor with some toys with which to play. The Cavs may be in shambles on the court, but off the court there is still plenty of flexibility to build a roster. Whether it is acting general manager David Griffin, an outside candidate, or God forbid Dan Gilbert himself as the man in charge of the Cavaliers’ future, that person will have plenty of tools to work.
What exactly do the Cavs have in the cupboard?
Draft picks
- The Cavs still possess the rights to every single one of their draft picks for the foreseeable future. Chicago does have the right to swap first rounders with the Cavs in 2015 thanks to the Luol Deng deal but only if the pick is outside the lottery. If the Cavs’ 2015 pick is in the lottery, then they no longer owe Chicago anything.
- Thanks to trades in 2011 and 2012, the Cavs own the rights to both Orlando and Memphis’s second round picks in 2014.
- In 2015, Cleveland will own Memphis’s 1st round pick protected for selections 1-5 and 15-30. If the pick is not exercised in 2015, the same protections are there in 2016. After 2016, the pick is top five protected in 2017 and 2018, then unprotected in 2019.
- Additonally, in 2015, Cleveland will own the rights to Miami’s first round pick so long as the pick is not in the top 10. The same goes for 2016, but if the pick is still not exercised, it becomes unprotected in 2017.
Young players
- Whether you want to build around them or package them for something bigger and better, young talent has value.
- The Cavs have two former number one overall picks on their roster in Irving and Bennett. Both are under the age of 22.
- Additionally, Cleveland possesses two former fourth overall picks in Tristan Thompson and Dion Waiters. Both are under the age of 23.
Cap flexibility
- Unlike many teams around the league, the Cavs have avoided a poison pill contract that handcuffs them for years.
- Dan Gilbert is on the hook for only $32 million in salary for the 2014-15 season. Team options for Anderson Varejao((Editor’s Note: $4 million of Varejao’s $9.7 million is guaranteed for next season.)), C.J. Miles, and Alonzo Gee can all be declined leaving the Cavs nearly $30 million under the projected cap.
- For the 2015-16 season, the Cavs are only on the books for $6.3 million, which is not including the qualifying offers or potential extensions for Kyrie Irving and/or Tristan Thompson.
Undoubtedly, Chris Grant left the Cavs better off on paper than they were when he took over. He left the new Cavaliers’ front office a hearty set of tools to rebuild, but can the regime use those tools effectively?
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Photo: Amy Sancetta, AP
15 Comments
I dont understand this. The same people (not specifically this author) who are lambasting grant for making poor decisions leading to a “losing culture” are the same people who will expect a quick turnaround because of the cavs “great assets” its one or the other, because it can’t be both.
Grant made excellent trades, but drafting and evaluating talent leaved much to be desired. Irving/Thompson/Zeller have been somewhat promising but Waiters and Bennett still leave much to be desired (although they have shown flashes of promise). The signings have also been mediocre to horrible (looking at you Jack, Clark, and Crynum; although he was flipped for Deng). Overall, Grant can be compared to Heckert: left the team in a position to compete the following season but new FO must use current assets properly.
Yeah…
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YllVvCrnYXs
I still don’t really understand how Chris Grant can be at that much
of fault here. Like Kildawg said, trade-wise he did excellently in acquiring assets.
Draft-wise is where fans get upset. Kyrie, Tristan, Dion, Zeller,
Bennett, and Karasev. Hindsight is 20/20, so who exactly would you have
drafted in place of these players? Drummond? Barnes? Noel? Valanciunas?
Kawhi Leonard? I think he did all he could to get talent on the team,
and shouldn’t really be blamed for terrible draft classes with one or
two difference-makers. He could have picked Derrick Williams *shudders*.
I do however blame him for the hiring of Mike Brown. Two moves that
should be made in the next couple weeks would be to fire Brown and trade
Dion.
Oladipo instead of Bennett in the draft likely would have gone better. Oladipo could have started at the 3 instead of the Gee/Clark mess. I think Brown or Waiters (traded) is next. Rising Stars should be a good showcase for the latter.
Stockpile of draft picks and cap flexibility… it’s a shame they don’t have 6 Pro Bowlers or I’d know of the perfect new front office group to get this thing turned around.
In Grant’s defense the 2012 draft wasn’t very talented. As far as 2013, well can’t defend that one.
Ok, first, anyone at 1 instead of Bennett would have looked better than what we have seen thus far. It might not be true next season, but thus far he has been terrible.
Oladipo at SF? He plays PG for Orlando and would get eaten alive at SF (not big or strong enough). The problem we had with him is that he cannot shoot and would have to spend time at SG. I called him the SG-version of MKG at the draft-time and it looks like it still fits (though he has been better than I thought he would be at passing the ball from PG).
Noel is missing this entire season (Philly fans have 2 straight years of missing their starting center), but he may be the big man we should have grabbed. If the medical reports were just too poor on him, then we would have passed him up too (which was the hard part of the draft as there were so many injured guys).
Honestly, based on what we have seen this season and ignoring where they were listed at the time of the draft, I would have the Cavs take Giannis Adetokunbo. That guy looks like he will develop into a defensive beast. Ok, I would actually have the Cavs take MCW and move Irving to SG (well, both be combo PG/SG).
Also, let’s not forget that the guy who I really liked for the Cavs was Otto Porter, and he’s been flat-out terrible so far.
Yeah, I was not nearly as big a fan of his as most. But, in this last draft, very few have panned out at all (my Jamaal Franklin fascination hasn’t panned out yet for instance).
I think the one thing I typed about the last draft that was undoubtedly truest:
Tier1 (destined to be a star) – no one. None deserve it,
so let’s not kid ourselves by forcing the issue.
alot of the Cavs great assets are future cap flexibility and draft picks. and, even some of the young player assets just do not work together well.
here’s one example: while a veteran team with strong leaders and coaches might be able to get the most out of Waiters, he looks lost here. put him in Indiana or Memphis and I would wager that he would play much better and their fans would love him (after a quite probably initial adjustment period for his effort on defense that would need correcting).
I don’t know if we can have a quick turnaround, but if we do, it’ll likely be because we fill the following missing pieces:
(1) Veteran defensive anchor (most probably at C)
(2) Veteran 3 & lockdown D wing
(3) Coach who will command attention of players
The issue is that alot of teams are searching for those types of guys too. Regardless, we need to change the culture and the direction of the team.
Yeah, even as well as Michael Carter-Williams has played, I still don’t feel like he’s got star-level talent. That draft may end up being the only one in history to not produce an All-Star, but there’s still so much time for these players to make significant leaps.
yeah. he would just make this offense run so much better and allow Kyrie to flow with the offense (and not worry as much about getting others involved).
anyway, since I had dug up my old thoughts on the 2013 draft, here is what I had said about MCW (ranked 8th):
Michael Carter-Willliams – all the measurable, but doesn’t blow you away. If he figures it out, then he could be amazing.
Nice. Kudos to Brett Brown… I haven’t heard anyone complaining about how MCW doesn’t know how to play man-to-man defense because he played college ball at Syracuse.
definitely. also, could you imagine Waiters/Bennett making it through a season with him?
Brett Brown:
I put a premium on fitness to our guys. I asked them to come in with career-best fitness levels, and when you do that, we’re going to run at what I hope is the fastest pace you’ve ever run